Coronavirus is running rampant in prisons, so America is doing everything it can to make sure Trump’s accomplices are released because they can’t run the risk of fucking up their precious white lungs.
According to the Washington Post, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is no longer in prison and has been relegated to house arrest because, who are we kidding, he’s friends with the president and therefore his lungs are more precious than a run-of-the-mill prisoner who doesn’t have a friendship with the president. They aren’t even trying to hide the shit anymore.
Manafort had been incarcerated since June 2018 “when he was indicted for witness tampering while awaiting trial on bank and tax fraud charges, for which he was convicted that summer. He later entered a cooperation deal with prosecutors after pleading to conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice related to his undisclosed lobbying for a pro-Russian politician and political party in Ukraine.”
Manafort’s cooperation in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election was short-lived, as prosecutors accused him of continuing to lie to them and “sought prison time,” the Post reports.
Manafort was set to serve seven years and instead was released from the minimum-security Lorretto Federal Correctional Institution in central Pennsylvania to serve his time from his home in Alexandria, Va. His term is set to end in 2024.
“Mr. Manafort is 71 years old and suffers from several preexisting health conditions, including high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory ailments,” his lawyers wrote to the Post. And yet, I don’t care. I’m sure there are other prisoners in the same position as Manafort who don’t have friends in high places and, in turn, are still at risk of catching the potentially deadly virus.
From the Post:
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons reported as of Tuesday that 2,818 inmates and 262 staff in its 140,000 prisoner system have tested positive for the virus, and 50 inmates have died. There have been no confirmed infections at the Loretto complex, according to the bureau.
His attorneys last April argued that, in light of the covid-19 pandemic, Manafort should be released to serve out at least a portion of that sentence with his wife in their Northern Virginia condominium. His release was confirmed by attorney Todd Blanche.
Here’s the really funny part, and by funny, I mean totally fucked up part: Attorney General William P. Barr, aka Evil Fred Flintstone, asked the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to start releasing vulnerable prisoners who were not a threat to the community. BOP was reportedly “prioritizing for consideration” inmates who served more than half their sentences or had less than 18 months on their sentence: Manafort had neither.
Yet, Trump’s friend, who tried his best to protect Trump, is free to serve the remainder of his sentence at home. And there have been no COVID-19 cases reported at Loretto, but that doesn’t matter anymore as Manafort and his precious white lungs are safe in Alexandria, Va., because the law only applies to people of color.